The present invention relates to the testing of electronic components, including integrated circuits, temporarily installed on a ‘test’ printed circuit board that is interfaced with a commercial electronic-component tester machine.
In the manufacture of electronic components, for example, integrated circuits, the integrated circuit is subject to testing at various stages in its manufacturing process. At the wafer level, conductive areas of the various dies are contacted by electrical probes to measure various circuit values and to exercise various parts of the circuitry. In a similar manner, the singulated dice (i.e., after separation from the wafer) are assembled into a post-encapsulated package. The dice and package are subject to additional testing to further guarantee the performance of the part as a single unit.
In some types of testing machines, such as the FLEX semiconductor test system sold by Teradyne, Inc. of North Reading Mass., one or more test sockets are mounted on a universal motherboard that, in turn, is mounted upon a rigid metal support frame with the so-assembled motherboard/support frame mated to a mounting plate that interfaces with the FLEX tester unit. The Teradyne FLEX test system includes resources for applying test DC, AC, digital, analog, mixed digital/analog, and complex signals, etc. to a device under test and for evaluating the respective responses therefrom. Electrical connections between the testing machine and the universal motherboard are often made via multiple spring-biased pogo-type pins or similar moveable contactors. A separate programmed-controlled pick-and-place machine often uses a vacuum wand having an elastomeric suction-type cup to pick an integrated circuit from a supply of non-tested integrated circuits (typically carried in an elongated plastic sleeve) and insert the so-picked integrated circuit into a test socket on the universal motherboard. The so-inserted integrated circuit is held in the test socket for a selected period of time (typically less than 1-second) while the test protocol is executed. If the integrated-circuit-under-test passes its test protocol, the device is transferred by the programmed suction wand to another sleeve for successfully tested devices or, where the device has failed its test, to yet another sleeve for failed devices or devices that do not meet performance specifications.
In the above described system, the relatively expensive universal motherboards are often configured for a specific device and, consequently, the cost of dedicated universal motherboards can be substantial where the number of different types of devices to be tested is large.